Bargaining with faith
Chris Saenz
In 1995 I arrived in southern Chile to the parish of Puerto Saavedra. The patron saint was St Sebastian. According to history, St Sebastian was a lay martyr in the early 4th century. He was a Roman military officer who became a Christian and refused to declare the Emperor Diocletian as divine, becoming an early "conscientious objector."
Sebastian was sentenced to death, tied to a tree and shot with several arrows. In Puerto Saavedra, there is a wooden carving of his image depicting this death. This image was brought to Puerto Saavedra some 100 years ago by Italian missionary Capuchins. A great devotion grew there and on St Sebastian's feast day, January 20, thousands of pilgrims come to celebrate and pay their "mandas."
Mandas are promises a pilgrim makes to a saint. Promises often consist of making a vow to visit the saint's shrine on his/her feast day for a number of years with an offering of money. In return the saint will fulfill the desire or wish of that pilgrim. To a western outsider it sounds like a bargain is made... "if I do this for you, you will do that for me." Often I questioned this "bargaining spirituality" considering it to be backwards and infantile. After all, wouldn't the money be better served to buy food for the poor pilgrims' family? Wasn't prayer enough?
During that time I was teaching confirmation in a small rural chapel called Yarquenco. I would arrive Sunday afternoon by bus, teach catechism, stay the night in the community and return in the morning. This provided a great opportunity to share with the families. One family, the Lipans, had three of the four daughters in confirmation preparation.
As the feast of St Sebastian approached the family became excited and made great preparations. One day the father, Alonso Lipan, told me that he was ready to pay his manda to the saint. Inwardly, I groaned and thought "another one!" I asked Alonso why he was paying the manda. Alonso explained.
Alonso's oldest daughter, Maritza had developed a tumour on her spine between the shoulder blades when she was a year old. Maritza had three operations and the doctors took flesh from Alonso's leg as tissue transplant to close Maritza's wound. However, her health did not improve. There was nothing more that could be done. Therefore, Alonso offered only what he had left - his faith.
On December 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, Alonso took his infant daughter to Temuco and visited the shrine dedicated to the Virgin. There Alonso placed his daughter under the protection of the Virgin and St Sebastian. Furthermore, he promised St Sebastian to visit the saint's shrine in Puerto Saavedra on his feast day for 20 years and to give an annual offering. In return Alonso asked for the health of Maritza.
My thoughts turned back to the image of St Sebastian in Puerto Saavedra Church. He is bound, helpless and defenceless. His body is wounded by arrows. Yet, his eyes are looking to the heavens above. It is an expression of offering all that he has left...his faith. I looked at Alonso and saw the same ... a helpless man who can do no more than give his faith.
Like St Sebastian who greatly loved his God and refused to surrender to the emperor, Alonso greatly loved his
daughter and refused to surrender to the illness. His spirituality was not backwards or infantile, it was a complete dependence on God. His manda was not a bargain but a prayer of great faith. It was a faith that was stronger than mine. Than I realized my previous view of a "bargaining spirituality" was badly misplaced.
In 2006 I visited Alonso, Maritza and the family. Maritza is now almost 30-years-old, lives in Santiago with one of her sisters, and is working. Life is not easy but Maritza is healthy and happy. Alonso, even though he has completed the "manda" continues to visit St Sebastian on his feast. Alonso's faith was enough to give Maritza life.
In 2007 I visited Rome. I went to the basilica and catacombs of St Sebastian. There I saw the tomb of the saint in the basilica and I remembered the Lipan family of Chile. I looked up at the ornate ceiling and saw the image of St Sebastian, tied to the tree and with arrows in the body, helpless yet an expression full of faith. Often in life, faith is all we have to bargain with. The Lipan family taught me the true meaning of this.
